You have all heard the old anti-war slogan “what if they gave a war and nobody came?” Not to worry, you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

But what about the media? It seems that there is now not enough interest to get a newspaper convention together. This is, of course, great news for democracy since newspapers have, like previously healthy body organs become cancers on the body politic.

When that happens, it’s best to remove the organ, or, in the case of the news media, to let the inevitable death take place and to rebuild on the rubble.

I should feel sorry for the people who will lose their jobs, but I don’t really. Malignant life forms are never lovable or the object of pity. Perhaps for friend or relatives, but not for the vast majority who have been made victims of their lies and distortions.

I have been reminded by Dennis Gartman who writes The Gartman Letter, that once things begin to slip away, the slip away very quickly. The Shah of Iran was depose and the new Islamic Republic was declared in Iran a mere 2 ½ months after Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris on February 1, 1979.

The death of the newspaper industry has been a longer dying process than that, but virtually every day sees the announcement of another paper closing. And the process seems to be accelerating.

Friday, February 27, 2009

You would think that when you go all out to elect Barack HUSSEIN Obama, you would have clue of the policies you are going to get.

In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

As First Lady, Clinton raised eyebrows when she kissed Suha Arafat.

Since she was then seeking a Senate seat the resulting brouhaha caused her to "re-think" her positions.

"I'm a very strong supporter of Israel," Clinton said back in February 2000.

On Thursday, as Secretary of State she had yet another about face in the form of angry messages demanding Israel speed up aid to Gaza. Jewish leaders are furious.

"I am very surprised, frankly, at this statement from the United States government and from the secretary of state," said Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and member of the NYC Jewish Community Relations Council.

"I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, said. "Now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."

Clinton's decision to hammer Israel comes as the Clintons and President Barack Obama are planning to give the Palestinians $900 million toward the rebuilding of Gaza in the wake of the Israeli offensive that was sparked by Hamas rocket fire.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama unveiled a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan Thursday that would boost taxes on the wealthy, curtail Medicare, lay the groundwork for universal health care and leave a string of deficits dwarfing any in the nation's history.In addition to sending Congress his $3.55 trillion budget plan for 2010, Obama proposed more immediate changes that would push spending to $3.94 trillion in the current year. That would result in a record deficit Obama projects will hit $1.75 trillion...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Greens are removing "useless eaters" from the world stage... Iowahawk has the inside story.

Bakouma was one of approximately one million people who died of malaria last year. Almost all of them were like him: poor, young, and African. And almost all of those deaths could have been prevented through vaccines, insecticide-treated netting, and (gasp) DDT spraying. Empirical research supports the indoor residual spraying (IRS) of DDT as not only safe, but the most economical and effective method for malaria prevention. For example, a 1996 DDT ban in South Africa, pushed by environmental groups, led to a malaria epidemic with over 60,000 cases reported in 2000. After DDT spraying resumed in 2001, infections dropped 80% in one year. Facing a mounting death toll across Africa the World Heath Organization and USAID have recently lent support to IRS using DDT, but its adoption continues to be opposed by environmental extremists relying on shoddy science and fearmongering.

NEW YORK - Major stock indexes posted broad gains on heavy trading early Tuesday on news that a rogue group of student protesters from New York University had taken over the White House and barricaded themselves in the Oval Office. The Dow posted a 1100 point (17%) gain in the first hour of trading, wiping out nearly all of its loss since January 20 and almost 35% of losses since November 4.

The markets, which went into freefall whenever a member of the administration spoke in public, reacted in a frenzy of buying...

The ensuing chaos, with hundreds of thousands of government employee walking off the job, brought gridlock to Washington freeways and the federal government to a crashing halt. It also sparked a buying frenzy on Wall Street, as bulls rushed in to take advantage of what they saw as a new, totally baked government economic policy.

"In his long list of policy demands, acting President Lozano never mentioned the stimulus package, TARP, or auto industry bailouts," said USB's Cohen. "There has been widespread optimism that he will remain too stoned to remember it."

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Christian Broadcaster Beheads Wife in His Broadcast Studio!

Mark has checked around and finds very little attention being paid to a particularly gruesome murder. "If it bleeds it leads" except when the blood is being shed by the followers of Islam who seem to have a predilection for beheading as their favorite form of murder.

SANTA FE, N.M. - Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.

"I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.

Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels.

...

Schmitt resigned after the group blamed global warming on human activity. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making."

Saturday, February 14, 2009

If the level of CO2 increases as the earth cools what conclusion can you draw? If you are a rational human being you would question the premise behind CO2 levels causing global warming. If you are a gloabl warming nutcase you would write the headline found in Reuters: "Global warming seen worse than predicted".

All Economies have Performance Issues

After his wife filed for divorce and got a protective order against him, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, on Thursday was arrested on suspiction of beheading his wife. Her body was found (the story does not mention where the head was found) at Hassan's business.

Hassan is the founder of a TV netweork whose slogan is "connecting people through understanding." Unfortunatley, part of his wife is no longer connected, but we do have a better understanding of Muslims.

Thus proving once again that Muslims are serious people and the British were right to prevent Geert Wilders from coming to England to show his film, Fitna.Roger Kimball comments.

Murtha denies getting any tainted money as part of the $775,000 donated by lobbying firm PMA. But it seems that some of the people who PMA says contributed either did not do so or appear to have been reimbursed to get around contribution rules.

Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.

"It's alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere," Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. "I've never heard of this company."

Another contributor listed as a PMA lobbyist is, in fact, a sales manager for an inflatable boat manufacturer in New Jersey. John Hendricksen said he did make campaign donations but never worked at PMA and does not know how he ended up listed in records that way.

...

Federal investigators are focused on allegations that PMA founder Paul Magliocchetti, a former appropriations staffer close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), may have reimbursed some of his staff to cover contributions made in their names to Murtha and other lawmakers, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

...

In the last election cycle, PMA and its clients donated $775,000 to Murtha's campaigns. Last year, those clients received earmarks worth $299 million and arranged by Murtha and his colleagues.

...

Two men listed in campaign finance reports as together giving $30,000 to lawmakers and being part of the PMA Group team are not Washington lobbyists at all. They live and work in the Florida resort community of Amelia Island, where PMA founder Magliocchetti has a beachfront condominium. Both are listed as directors of PMA.

John Pugliese had been a sommelier at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the island, his family said. Jon C. Walker is in charge of golf marketing at the neighboring Amelia Island Golf Club, according to club personnel and its Web site. They each donated identical amounts to the same lawmakers, in 12 installments each, almost always on the same date.

...

Rebecca DeRosa, who is listed as a part-time accountant at PMA and director, recently married Magliocchetti and has given generously on PMA's behalf for several years. Last year alone, she personally gave $73,000 to lawmakers and congressional political action committees, records show. For most of those donations, she is listed as a PMA employee. Her donations included $22,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $4,250 to Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.).

DeRosa did not answer her phone or returns calls to the Gaithersburg office of the DRS subsidiary, where she is listed as an employee.

EAST PEORIA, ILL. -- President Obama today repeated the claim we asked about yesterday at the press briefing that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."

Asked if the stimulus package would be able to stop the 22,000 layoffs or not, Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again"

"It is going to take some time before that stimulus bill" means re-hiring, he said.

The Team Obama strategy will be to claim any hires following the spending bill passing is the result of the spending bill passing. The bill is so vast and the money so widely dispersed that they will be able to show some connection, however implausible. Like the “six degrees of separation” theory or the logical fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc: (“after this therefore because of this.”)

Someday, perhaps tomorrow or perhaps a decade from now we will come out of this recession. At that point, Team Obama will take credit. It’s what they do.

ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk.

During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner — whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze — criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help or permission to clean up around their properties in preparation for the bushfire season. "We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down," he said.

There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Barack "Barney Fife" Obama.

At the Justice Ministry, five Taliban guerrillas armed with explosives and Kalashnikov rifles killed two guards, stormed the building, and took control of several floors for about an hour. Frightened employees, including the justice minister, barricaded themselves in their offices while the armed men stalked the halls for victims. They shot 10 people to death before being killed. Other victims were killed in the explosion of suicide devices.

Over the weekend, in between depressing news about the economy and the continued sagas of Michael Phelps and Alex Rodrgiuez, an inspirational story appeared on the Associated Press news wire. It detailed American Jennifer Figge's accomplishment in becoming the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Many media outlets (including Yahoo!) jumped on the story that seemed almost too good to be true. That's because it was.

The AP originally reported that Figge swam from the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa to Trinidad (2,100 miles) in 25 days while escorted by a boat. She was said to have rested every night and hopped back in the water in the morning.

... The real issue stemmed from the fact that swimming 2,100 miles in 25 days is impossible. (Some newspapers picked up on this.) ... Michael Phelps swimming his fastest would take about 20 days to cover that distance. And that's his fastest pace, sustained for three weeks, without ever stopping. Impossible.

Yet, somehow, the AP ran the story even though a few seconds of thought and a pocket calculator was enough to disprove it.

In the seventies and eighties, when you were a hard core leftist, you visited China, Cuba, and the USSR. Can you tell us a little about what stuck with you about those countries?

Well, there are several chapters in the book about this and I would refer readers to that because it's hard to sum up in a paragraph. Also, the national characters come into play, mixing with the hideous communist ideology some once thought idealistic and egalitarian. In one sense I think I was quite lucky to have had as much experience of communist countries as I did, because today I am not easily seduced by the nostalgia some are having for them. There were giant jails and I got to see them from the inside. The sections of Blacklisting Myself in which I describe my visits may be the most useful parts of the book in the long term and are among the chapters I am most proud of. In the case of Red China, I was among the first Westerners allowed in when nearly everyone was still wearing Mao suits. One thing is for sure: my work won't be confused with Lincoln Steffens or John Reed.

U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu announced his resignation this morning amid new reports that Alameda County workers had unearthed more than a dozen additional dead hobo bodies at his former home in Berkeley, California. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist had been the subject of a week-long controversy after he amended his White House application form to declare "3 or 4" hobo corpses in his crawl space, but after this morning's discovery, Chu said he felt he could no longer serve as an effective spokesman for Administration energy policy."Getting America on the road to energy independence requires a secretary who is focused full time on developing comprehensive strategies for alternative fuels, rather than a political distraction over a handful of decomposing drifters," said Chu. "I'm afraid I am no longer that person."

I had to Google this to make sure that it was satire. With the Obama administration, you can't be sure. Read the whole thing.

Traveling through Florida, as I have been for some weeks, you see these underutilized assets all about you. They are everywhere, like rich, virgin topsoil ready to be planted and then harvested. What's more, harvesting these assets to put some real money into circulation does not go against the core values of the ruling Democratic majority. It merely extends them to the logical conclusion. Like the culling of the herd before birth through the use of abortion to get the nonproductive out of the way before they can consume resources, it is time our older citizens -- far past their usefulness, their productive years, but likely to consume lots of resources for decades to come -- were, quite simply, liquidated.

Yes, it's time for mom and pop and granny and grandpop to go. All 37 million of them must be transformed from codger to compost if the American dream is not to become a new-age nightmare. It's time for a government program from coast to coast to make sure that every American over the age of 65 takes one for the team -- in the form of a government approved and delivered .22 bullet in the back of the head.

Now I know that some may think me harsh in my prescription for continuing prosperity among the Baby Boomers and their offspring, but hear me out because, to coin a phrase, "There's gold in them thar grannies."

The summary execution of every man and woman in America over the age of 65 brings two immediate benefits to the United States.

...A third benefit is a jobs program right here and right now. And for the disadvantaged as well.

It might take some training to teach an urban youth basic skills such as "showing up on time for work" since they have only had eight to twelve years of expensive education, but it takes none at all to have urban youth sneak up on grandpa and "bust a cap in his skanky ass." This new class of SSa worker allows us to put jobs, paying jobs, that the worker already knows how to do on the street tomorrow. "A hit tomorrow = a pay check Friday" should be the new slogan of the Obama Works Administration (OWA!). This should not be, I hasten to add, a kind of "WPA" (We Putter Around) retread of the glorious FDR years, but a new take on killing for the state with both quotas and bounties for all.

The willing youth workers of America await. All that is required is a government regulated .22 pistol and a few boxes of ammunition each.

In the unquenchable spirit of "Yes, we can!" there is opportunity in this act for those that want to give back and pitch in to make America great again. Families that take culling into their own hands and transport the bodies of their mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers to their local Transplant Parts Recycling Unit will be paid the bounty plus an eco-bonus for helping the government clean up after itself and keeping the country green through recycling properly. In addition they get to feel like "really good people" for reducing the carbon-footprint that the elderly would leave if they were left alive. People presenting two or more bodies will be given a bumper-sticker autographed by the Secretary of the Interior proclaiming "Dad's Dead That the Planet May Live."

...I call for the ruling party to put aside their own ages, draft appropriate legislation (with the proviso that all guns and ammunition be 'Made in America'), and move the bills into law. After all, a party that can kill millions of babies ("for their own good") should have no problem popping a cap in granny's ass.

The Census Issue

A census is conducted in the United States every 10 years. The next census is scheduled for 2010. The US Constitution specifies that ( Article 1, section 2) “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

Democrats have been trying to get the way a census is conducted changed. They want to substitute statistical sampling for an “actual enumeration” (generally interpreted as a head count). They claim that many of their constituents are unwilling or unable to be counted in the actual census, but exist nevertheless. For that reason, they wish to use computer models as a substitute for – or adjunct to - an actual count, claiming that this will provide a more accurate representation than a head count.

This may or may not be true. But substitution of statistical sampling for an actual count opens the door to manipulation based on the assumptions built into the models. Election results are an example of the distrust people have about computer systems that count the vote. Even paper ballots are subject to challenge and manipulation.

Computers can “create” people just as they can “create” virtual reality … or predictions of global catastrophe via man-made global warming.

The global warming debate is an outstanding example of the uses and abuses of statistics and computer models. The introduction of computer modeling into something so basic and politically charged as the census will lead to even greater political polarization and distrust than already exists.

A great deal of political power derives from the census, the most important being the apportionment of representatives to the US Congress. A great deal of Federal government largesse is also based on census figures.

But the effects could be even greater at the State and local level which also apportion representation and aid based on census numbers.

The effect of “statistical sampling” will be to give greater control of government to urban centers and take it away from small towns and rural areas. New York City already has about half of the population of New York State; we can be sure that the rest of the state will become even more of a political backwater after the new census. California will become a subsidiary of Los Angeles, Illinois a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago. Even smaller states will be affected. By current count roughly 20% of Idaho’s residents live in Boise; with statistical sampling we can be assured that number will skyrocket.

There are, of course, a few who areconcernedabout this issue, but for most of the chattering classes, who inhabit our population centers, this move will be considered a “good thing.” The rest of the country will be assigned the role of hewers of wood and drawers of water. The enlightened few will hold the levers of power. More bread and circuses anyone?

Everyone knows that it is possible to organize a Decennial Census in a way that benefits one party or another politically. One way to effectuate this otherwise unpalatable departure from the Census Bureau's two hundred year history of non-partisanship is to put the Bureau administratively under direction of the politicos in the White House. In reality that would be a sure invitation to cook the books on the highly consequential count of Americans.

Advocates argue that putting the 2010 Census under direct White House control somehow assures a higher priority to its mission. This is cynical. It puts a priority on manipulation of carefully derived Census criteria. The only reason the White House would want to be involved is in figuring out how to add more voting power to certain states and groups within states.

Simply put, there is no excuse for this idea. it is not true that the Census Bureau has ever been under the direct management of the White House, and for good reason. Even if angels were in charge of the Executive Mansion, if the nation's premier statistical agency were placed under White House direction the danger to public trust would be enormous. The Decennial count is one of the few federal functions specifically described in the Constitution itself and must be operate above suspicion of politics.

I was Director of the Census from 1981 to '83 in the Reagan Administration. I always was made to feel conscious of the sound public servants who had preceded me and, regardless of who appointed them, defended the decennial count. . I have known directors from the Kennedy era (the estimable Richard Scaammon) to the G. W. Bush Administration (the very professional Louis Kincannon). I don't know anyone who cares for the integrity of the Bureau and its products who would desire to see the Census Bureau report directly to the White House.

Power flows from an accurate Census Count. Everyone involved for years has seen the count therefore a sacred trust. It must not be polluted with even a semblance of Presidential meddling.

Waving invisible banners proclaiming "Census Rights Now," an enormous throng of Imaginary-Americans rallied at the National Mall today to support the Obama Administration's planned takeover of the U.S. Census Bureau.

"I want to thank everyone in the Imaginary community for turning out for this great cause," said President Obama, speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Monument to a reportedly cheering crowd estimated at between 0 and 12 million. "For too long, the Census Bureau has discriminated against people on the basis of their existential status, or perceived lack of appearance. That must stop. I promise you that under my administration, Imaginary-Americans everywhere will enjoy the same rights that they do in my home town of Chicago."

ABC News analyst Jake Tapper said the rally underscored the growing national political clout of Imaginary-Americans.

"It used to be that Non-Existentials were mostly confined to a few wards in Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit, but we're seeing them more and more in opinion polls and elections around the country," said Tapper. "With dozens of congressional seats and billions of dollars in federal grants hanging in the balance, the President wants to make sure Imaginary citizens don't get undercounted in the 2010 Census."

"It's just smart politics," added Tapper. "According to the exit polls, President Obama carried the Imaginary vote 346% to √-12%."

That was appalling news from Britian. The slide into multi-culti totalitarianism has gone much farther than I knew.

The Brussels Journal reports that Geert Wilders has been banned from entry to the U.K. This is the first time ever that a parliamentarian from one EU country has been forbidden entry to another.

Here is the letter given by the British embassy to Mr. Wilders.

Dear Mr Wilders

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the Secretary of State is of the view that your presence in the UK would pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society. The Secretary of State is satisfied that your statements about Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film Fitna and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the UK.

You are advised that should you travel to the UK and seek admission an Immigration Officer will take into account the Secretary of State's view. If, in accordance with regulation 21 of the immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, the Immigration Officer is satisfied that your exclusion is justified on grounds of public policy and/or public security, you will be refused admission to the UK under regulation 19. You would have a right of appeal against any refusal of admission, exercisable from outside the UK.

Yours sincerely,

Irving N. Jones

On behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home DepartmentPersons with incorrect opinions will not be admitted to the U.K., even if they are elected members of another nation's parliament. Nothing, nothing must be allowed if it gives offense to Muslims.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, a Muslim member of the House of Lords (Labour), had threatened to mobilize 10,000 Muslims to prevent Mr. Wilders from entering the British Parliament. Lord Ahmed boasted in the Pakistani press that the cancellation of Mr. Wilders' visit was "a victory for the Muslim community."

It was indeed; and it was a terrible defeat for liberty.

Don't think this couldn't happen here. The new administration is even further to the multi-culti Left than Britain's Labourites . . . not that there aren't plenty of Republicans who would cheerfully go along with the silencing of "hurtful" opinions.

President Barack Obama had it both ways Monday when he promoted his stimulus plan in Indiana. He bragged about getting Congress to produce a package with no pork, yet boasted it will do good things for a Hoosier highway and a downtown overpass, just the kind of local projects lawmakers lard into big spending bills.

Obama's sales pitch on the enormous package he wants Congress to make law has sizzle as well as steak. He's projecting job creation numbers that may be impossible to verify and glossing over some ethical problems that bedeviled his team.

...

A look at some of Obama's claims in Elkhart, Ind., in advance of a prime-time news conference called to make his case to the largest possible audience:

OBAMA: "I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill."

THE FACTS: There are no "earmarks," as they are usually defined, inserted by lawmakers in the bill. Still, some of the projects bear the prime characteristics of pork - tailored to benefit specific interests or to have thinly disguised links to local projects.

For example, the latest version contains $2 billion for a clean-coal power plant with specifications matching one in Mattoon, Ill., $10 million for urban canals, $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars, and $255 million for a polar icebreaker and other "priority procurements" by the Coast Guard.

Obama told his Elkhart audience that Indiana will benefit from work on "roads like U.S. 31 here in Indiana that Hoosiers count on." He added: "And I know that a new overpass downtown would make a big difference for businesses and families right here in Elkhart."

...

OBAMA: "The plan that we've put forward will save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next two years."

THE FACTS: Job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation.

Camille Paglia on the Porkulous Bill

Money by the barrelful, by the truckload. Mountains of money, heaped like gassy pyramids in the national dump. Scrounging packs of politicos, snapping, snarling and sending green bills flying sky-high as they root through the tangled mass with ragged claws. The stale hot air filled with cries of rage, the gnashing of teeth and dark prophecies of doom.

Yes, this grotesque scene, like a claustrophobic circle in Dante's "Inferno," was what the U.S. government has looked like for the past two weeks as it fights on over Barack Obama's stimulus package -- a mammoth, chaotic grab bag of treasures, toys and gimcracks. Could popular opinion of our feckless Congress sink any lower? You betcha!

For certain Beltway centrists, the highest principle is to prove that you are attached to no principle. Rather, your duty is to split the difference between the "ideologues." If one side says we need a 1,000-foot bridge to span a canyon, and the other side says we don't need a bridge at all, the centrists will fight for a bridge that goes 500 feet and no farther, then pat themselves on the back.

Human beings are going to make mistakes, whether in the market or in the government. The difference is that survival in the market requires recognizing mistakes and changing course before you go bankrupt. But survival in politics requires denying mistakes and sticking with the policies you advocated while blaming others for the bad results.

On the planned missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Biden said the US would "continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective."

"We will do so in consultation with our NATO allies and Russia."

Well, since Russia has consistantly opposed this project and with Germany and France not very keen on the project either, chances are pretty slim that the shield is ever going to be installed, despite serious political damages to the Eastern European governments involved, after they put their credibility at stake with the Bush-backed plan....

So the Obama administration would have no problem in scrapping the missile defense shield and it is probably a matter of months until they will do so, the moment Moscow signals some opening.

The Obama adminsitration is bringing back another phrase that had gone missing during the Bush years: "It's dangerous to be America's enemy, its fatal to be America's friend."

Note that Obama is telling us we are in a recession that's going to get worse and will lead to a catastrophe if we don't pass his pork bill. Here's how the press treated his predecessor when Bush spoke about a recession:

Every president must walk a rhetorical tightrope when talking about the economy, a lesson Mr. Bush learned quickly, being bashed just after taking office for delivering somber news. The United States was just entering a mild recession - it had been in one, it turns out, for about nine months - and the new president said so.

Liberals went berserk.

"Every time we turn around, this guy is bad-mouthing the economy. Is that lifting our spirit or dumping on it in order to sell his tax cut?" liberal comentator Bill Press said on CNN. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, in an article headlined "Thanks Ever So Much, President Poor-Mouth," said, "Even if Bush turns out to be right in his predictions of gloom, that doesn't mean he was right to make them." The New York Times lectured Mr. Bush, saying that presidents were supposed to be "cheerleaders for the nation's economy."

But Mr. Bush tried that, too. As the United States recovered from the economic devastation caused by the 9/11 attacks, the president constantly talked up the economy, asserting that the American work force could compete with any in the world, and he assured Americans that happy days were right around the corner. Even as the currrent recession took hold, he continued to portray the nation's future in optimistic tones.

For all his effort, he was portrayed as a Pollyannish rube whose naivete so clouded his vision that he could not see the stark reality of the economic situation. How else to explain his optimism in the face of $4-a-gallon gas or exploding unemployment, or presidential statements a year ago, such as "I don't think we're headed to a recession, but no question we're in a slowdown."

From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark, darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon.

President Obama and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter's watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the $800 billion-plus bailout bill.

While President Bush was accused shortly after taking office in 2001 of "talking down the economy" - and for saying the economy was "slowing down" - Mr. Obama is using ever-heightening hyperbole to hammer home his message. But the strategy brings great risk for the "Yes, We Can" man, who just three weeks ago told America in his inaugural address that despite "a sapping of confidence across our land," his election meant Americans had "chosen hope over fear."

"Mr. Hope has ... become Dr. Doom,"

But then, that's how community organizers organize.

Other Democrats agree:

But he isn't the only Democrat ramping up the rhetoric while talking down the economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said last month that our economy "is dark, darker, darkest." Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin said, "This economy is in mortal danger of absolute collapse." And Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said of the economic-stimulus bill, "If we don't pass this thing, it's Armageddon."

Inside the Eagle Nebula

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Pelosi and syphilis

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is on TV explaining the (at this point the congregation shall fall to its knees and prostrate itself) "stimulus." "How," asks the lady from CBS, "does $335 million in STD prevention stimulate the economy?"

The more interviews Speaker Pelosi gives explaining how vital the STD industry is to restarting the U.S. economy, the more I find myself hearing "syphilis" every time she says "stimulus." In late September, America was showing the first signs of "primary stimulus" – a few billion lesions popping up on the rarely glimpsed naughty bits of the economy: the subprime mortgage racket, the leverage kings. Now, the condition has metastasized in a mere four months into the advanced stages of "tertiary stimulus," with trillions of hideous, ever more inflamed pustules sprouting in every nook and cranny as the central nervous system of the body politic crumbles into total insanity – until it seems entirely normal for the second in line of presidential succession to be on TV gibbering away about how vital the federalization of condom distribution is to economic recovery.

Having your cake and eating it too

There is no better explanation of the phrase “Having your cake and eating it too” than to observe the Obama administration as it appoints one ethically challenged lobbyist and tax cheat after another to positions in the administration as it loudly proclaims that it has the highest ethical standards and is lobbyist free.

"created a climate of Puritanism in which any error is grounds for disqualification."

Note the euphemism "any error." This is the 2009 version of the excuse "everyone lies about sex."

I love the way Obama gives “waivers” to people he wants to appoint but don’t meet the standards it has announced.

Who could imagine any other person getting away with this? Would you be credited with having the highest ethical and moral standards, and while maintaining those standards, give yourself waivers to lie, cheat, steal or commit crimes?

So the new rule is: you can maintain the highest moral standards as long as when you don’t meet those standards you give yourself a waiver.

Obama ran around the country during the campaign insisting that his administration would bring on a tidal wave of ethical progress -- the most ever in history. Democrats were already wrestling with those 'little' ethics problems called Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank, William Jefferson and Christopher Dodd, but in two short weeks Obama has made significant progress assembling a Cabinet filled with Al Capones. ..

Obama vowed never to name 'lobbyists' to his administration, so he names lobbyist William Lynn as deputy Pentagon honcho, lobbyist Tom Vilsack as Agriculture sec., lobbyist William Corr as HHS deputy, lobbyist Mark Gitenstein as DOJ honcho, lobbyist George Mitchell as 'Middle East envoy' -- or, more precisely, envoy to push the Jews into the sea -- and Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson for a gig as chief of staff to that pillar of ethics, Timothy Geithner.

As the Washington Times reports, around two dozen registered ex-lobbyists are working in Obama's lobbyist-free administration -- from yawneroo "executive-branch hires, all the way to Cabinet level." Not to worry, all this frantic lobbyist hiring falls within the new ethics guidelines simply by waiving the new ethics guidelines.

Read the whole thing.

OK. I vowed that I would refrain from partisanship beginning in 2009, and I will maintain that standard, except when it becomes necessary for the good of the country and to advance my noble agenda. On those occasions, I will give myself a waiver.

The stimulus bill has failed. Barack Obama has failed. The Trojan Horse of Hope and Change crashed into the guardrail of reality, revealing an army of ideologues and activists inside....The economic crisis was almost too good to be true. Like FDR and Lyndon Johnson, Obama was poised to act on Rahm’s Rule of Crisis Exploitation in a way that would not only guarantee a newer New Deal and an even greater Great Society, but would also receive bipartisan approval. That’s why Obama wanted so much GOP support—so as to ratify the left turn to European-style social democracy, particularly when voters cottoned on to the con.

But that didn’t happen. Obama and his party were undone by their hubris. There was just too much muchness in the bill. The once impressive support from conservative economists evaporated. Right-wing radio has been having one long tailgate party celebrating Obama’s overreach. According to the polls, voters are souring on the whole thing. Republicans finally discovered testicular fortitude—and they seem to like it.

There is still probably bipartisan support for a stimulus bill, but only for a measure intended to stimulate our market-based economy rather than one that hastens its Swedenization.

Again, Obama’s presidency has many victories ahead of it, and Democrats still run the show. But the perfect storm of liberalism has dissipated to mere scattered showers.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

As I was driving home this evening I had my car radio tuned to NPR (National Public Radio) and during my half hour drive heard several references to banks, bankers and their responsibility for the economic mess we are currently in.

It seems that here are two sets of culprits.

The Left (made up of Democrats, and the media) who place all the blame on greedy bankers.

And the Right who believe that government policies were at the root of the problem.

I have no doubt at all that there are villains in both camps. But no one, even a greedy banker, goes out to do business that destroys his company and his job.

As the Liberals like to say, the “root cause” was government policy. It was the thing that got this snowball rolling. When you tell people who are in the lending business that they have to lend to people who will have trouble paying off their loans, you are creating a problem.

If this problem is small enough, it’s manageable. Bankers can treat it like a protection racket. Give some loans you figure you won’t get back and add the cost into the loans that will be repaid. But when you are forced by the government (or the mobster, take your pick) to make more and bigger bad loans, you are creating s hazard that your bank may not survive.

Enter Fannie and Freddie.

What if you could make loans without having to worry if they would be paid back? What if you did not have to own the loans you made? What if you could sell them to someone else and be out of them when they defaulted? Then you would not care (unless you had a conscience) how many loans you made to people who could not afford to pay them off.

Congress told Fannie and Freddie that they were required to buy big chunks of what we euphemistically called “subprime” loans. And Fannie and Freddie were glad to go along because while the real estate bubble grew, defaults were low. People were flipping houses. There were TV shows and public seminars that taught people how to make a fortune in real estate by buying houses with no money down, putting on a coat of paint and making a fortune.

So banks and mortgage companies went into the business of giving loans to just about anybody. They were not checking people’s ability to pay. They didn’t care. They lowered lending standards so far that they made half-a-million dollar loans to people who made minimum wage washing dishes or mowing lawns. And they were lauded for their public spirit. They made their money up front in closing costs. They sold the loans to Fannie and Freddie before the ink was cry on the contract. Then they took the money from the sale of the loan and made even more loans to indigents and flippers. And sold them. Not their problem any more.

Fannie and Freddie execs were making hundreds of millions; Wall Street bond salesmen were making millions because as we all know “real estate always goes up.” Banks who saw their competitors making billions from trading mortgage backed securities felt they had to get into the business to get their share of the profits. Rating agencies were giving the mortgage backed bonds AAA ratings. Life was good and the leading lights in Congress like Barney Frank and Chris (‘Friend of Angelo”) Dodd, Fannie, Freddie and the media were congratulating themselves for bringing home ownership to the underprivileged.

Until the whole mess blew up. The music stopped and lots of people found themselves without chairs. And then the hunt for culprits began. And the guys with the megaphones, the guys with the microphones, the guys for whom the answer to the problem - any problem - is “the government,” made the people who could not talk back the villain.

And that, children, is why NPR is focused like a laser beam on the evil bankers. Because they don’t want to bother the people who subsidize their livelihood. If you’re NPR you don’t have to worry too much about pissing on the big bad bankers. What can they do to you? But piss off Barney Frank or Chris Dodd and you’ve got a problem.

It always ends with a little banjo music sung by the sort of nasal balladeers that are a fixture on NPR singing a newly written song about having lost his job because the banks screwed him over.

The $2 billion Governor Rod Blagojevich Earmark

After FutureGen was abandoned, disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich paid Cassidy and Associates, a major Washington, D.C. lobbying firm, $468,000 in public funds to lobby to restart the project. The Illinois delegation in Congress has also been pushing hard for the FutureGen earmark,...

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu Bizarre Comments: 'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California'

I was walking to lunch a few days ago in downtown Norfolk when a street corner preacher with a huge sign began bellowing that we must repent or be doomed. I believe that he has been recruited by the Obama administration for a high government position, nicely balancing tax cheats with global warming religious nut cases.

Elections have consequences and Liberals have been telling us that Obama is really a centrist. If Steven Chu is someone’s idea of a centrist, I’m Dolly Parton.

While the central states have had dozens of people killed and hundreds are out of power because of ice storms. While most of the US is going to freeze tonight, while much of England is paralyzed by snow and Dutchmen are skating on frozen canals for the first time in two decades, Steven Chu is sounding the global warming alarm by predicting an end to agriculture in California if we don’t mend our heathen ways. According to the LA Times:

California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday.

I’m assuming that Chu is not off his medication and his speech was vetted by the same people who checked out Tom Daschle to make sure he was squeaky clean. If so, he is a frightening look at the people we have fondling the levers of power in Washington for the next four years … if the country lasts that long.

This Tom Daschle campaign ad from 1986 is hilarious. Daschle drives an old jalopy around Washington; why? Because a penny saved is a penny earned! Especially when you save it by not paying your taxes...

This is how crooks like Daschle get re-elected by the Bubbas back home. And does this make you wonder whether the papers in his home state ever revealed the truth? Nah!

Shunning Little Green Footballs

Charles Johnson made his reputation at Little Green Footballs by helping debunk Dan Rather’s pathetic attempts to smear Bush with phony National Guard documents. He also spends a lot of time documenting the Islamofascists phenomenon. In fact this latter issue is his primary focus.

But he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about evolution. It’s a theory he cherishes, adores and holds dear. And he will not let an opportunity pass to smear or otherwise demean people who believe in God.

Have you ever been in a situation where someone you thought was on your side, reveals something that made you wish that he was not identified with you? Made you want to leave the room? That's how I feel about Johnson.

I’m sorry to say that this is an ugly side of Johnson that has made his blog something that I now wish to avoid. It makes you wonder what other issues he’s rabid about.

ON his first full day in the Oval Office, President Obama signaled a new approach to government transparency that will help restore trust in government.As if opening the Bush administration's musty drapes in the Oval Office, Obama issued a memo urging agencies to err on the side of disclosure rather than on the side of secrecy, when responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

The issue is metastasizing. The people still deserve to know the sweetheart deal Dodd got from “Friends of Angelo.” But now the press has become the issue, once again.

From DC Examiner.com:

There are two kinds of journalists in the world - those who have been been given the idiot's treatment by public officials on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for public documents, and those who will be.

Believe me, I know because I didn't get inducted into the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame for nothing (no, really, I am not making that up. Go here if you think only liberals get such honors.).

Now Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen, Chris Dodd, D-CN, has pulled what has to be an all-time classic evasion stunt against journalists covering Congress and the economic crisis concerning his promise six months ago to make public all of the documents about his sweetheart loan deal with Countrywide Mortgage.

Dodd invited a select few Connecticut reporters to his office in Hartford Monday and gave them a few minutes to view - but not copy - a small selection of documents that he claims proves he did nothing wrong in accepting special treatment from Countrywide that saved him a reported $75,000 in refinancing a couple of loans worth a total of $800,000. The Wall Street Journal called it Dodd's "Peek-A-Boo Disclosure."

But here's the clincher:

So the question now is what will be the response from Mainstream Media outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News, plus the big professional journalism organizations like the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Will they simply go away like nothing important just happened, go through the motions of meaningless protest or actually do something concrete like jointly tell Dodd to stop playing games or risk the consequences of a lawsuit, including a discovery process relentlessly pursued and with every detail made public?

My guess is that they will do nothing because Dodd is a Democrat and he will be protected just as they have protected House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Clinton administration officials like former OMB Director Franklin Raines, and the many Democrat donors and operators like Mozilo who made millions through their associations with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They forced lenders to lend billions to unqualified buyers, shielded the process from public exposure and accountability and then cried "Wall Street greed" when their Ponzi scheme exploded and the economy tanked.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

...barbarism, often cloaked in the language of "resistance," has gained acceptance in the most elite circles of our society. The words "war on terror" cannot be uttered today without fear of offense. Civilized society, so it seems, is so numbed by violence that it has lost its gift to be disgusted by evil.

I believe it all started with well-meaning analysts, who in their zeal to find creative solutions to terror decided that terror is not a real enemy, but a tactic. Thus the basic engine that propels acts of terrorism -- the ideological license to elevate one's grievances above the norms of civilized society -- was wished away in favor of seemingly more manageable "tactical" considerations.

This mentality of surrender then worked its way through politicians like the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. In July 2005 he told Sky News that suicide bombing is almost man's second nature. "In an unfair balance, that's what people use," explained Mr. Livingstone.

But the clearest endorsement of terror as a legitimate instrument of political bargaining came from former President Jimmy Carter. In his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Mr. Carter appeals to the sponsors of suicide bombing. "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Road-map for Peace are accepted by Israel." Acts of terror, according to Mr. Carter, are no longer taboo, but effective tools for terrorists to address perceived injustices.

News stories at tax time about tax cheats and the IRS cracking down are likely to undermine tax compliance. So, too, stories that Daschle (and others) under-reported are likely to have a negative effect on compliance. Overall, it is likely that most members of Congress and high-ranking members of the Executive branch (and the judicial branch for that matter) faithfully pay what they owe. So here is a proposal: let’s audit them all. The details of their returns need not be released, just final information on whether they owe back taxes.

My letter to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler

Last evening’s story on the tragic ice storm in Kentucky and surrounding states contrasted strangely with the reporting surrounding hurricane Katrina. The story was largely upbeat with local responders coping with the horrific after-effects of the storm. Note that dozens of people died as a result of the storm so it was not merely inconvenient. Hundreds of thousands are still without power or heat and may be for as long as a month in freezing temperatures during the coldest winter in a decade.

The primary contrast was the fact the report made absolutely no mention of FEMA or – for that matter – any federal response to this tragedy. The contrast between the party atmosphere in Washington and the cranked up heat in the Oval Office with people freezing to death in Kentucky could not have been more stark.

Of course, this lack of reportage on the lack of a federal response is not limited to PBS. The rest of the national media is equally incurious.

Best,XXXXX

This is the message that comes back when you send a comment:

Thank you for your thoughts. Michael Getler values viewers' submissions, and he and his assistant try to read all letters. The ombudsman's column will address significant issues related to how PBS upholds its own standards of editorial integrity.

And who awards those marks? Why Kentucky's Democrat governor who called the Democrat president asking for a state of emergency. So what's the opinion of the people on the ground? Here's how the article begins...

EDDYVILLE, Ky. – In the first real test of the Obama administration's ability to respond to a disaster, Kentucky officials are giving the federal government good marks for its response to a deadly ice storm.

Yet more than 300,000 residents remained without power Monday and some areas had yet to see aid workers nearly a week after the storm, a fact not lost on some local authorities.

"We haven't seen FEMA. They haven't been here," said Jaime Green, a spokeswoman for the emergency operations center in Lyon County, about 95 miles northwest of Nashville, Tenn.

Is this the kind of natural disaster that traditionally overwhelms FEMA? No!

Gov. Steve Beshear raised Kentucky's death toll to 24 on Monday, meaning the storm has been blamed in at least 55 deaths nationwide. And while it also knocked out power to more than a million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast, it's still considered a medium-sized disaster, the kind FEMA has traditionally been successful handling.

So what, exactly has FEMA done? It seems that supplies got to a depot in Kentucky four days after the storm hit.

Beshear asked Obama for a disaster declaration to free up federal assistance Thursday, two days after the storm hit, and Obama issued it hours later. Trucks loaded with supplies began arriving at a staging area at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday morning, said Mary Hudak, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Heck of a job Barry.

So who's handing out the "atta boy" comments? You had to ask?

Beshear has consistently praised Obama, a fellow Democrat, for the attention he's devoted to what Beshear calls the biggest natural disaster to hit his state.

"We have had tremendous and quick response from President Obama and his administration," Beshear said Monday. "I don't think any of our folks that have dealt with disasters before ever recall as quick a response as we got last Wednesday."

Another cheerleader for FEMA is part of the FEMA network.

Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, based in Lexington, Ky., said that from what she's heard, FEMA's response has been very good so far. Her group represents emergency management directors from all 50 states.

What can she point to as the Federal success?

"The governor's declaration request for an emergency was turned around very, very quickly by FEMA and the White House," said Sheets, who just had her power restored Monday after four days without it. "And President Obama has spoken with the governor of Kentucky on several occasions throughout the event."

That's it. Declaring a state of emergency (with typically takes a few hours) and a few phone calls. Heck of a job, Barry.

Sheets said she hadn't heard any complaints so far about the federal response.

Perhaps that's because the MSM have barely mentioned the pitiful federal response in their news reports.

Oh wait, there have been complaints:

By Monday, FEMA officials were checking in on supply distribution points in some rural areas. FEMA official Don Daniel stopped by to ask emergency management officials in Grayson County, who had criticized FEMA's absence late last week, what they needed.

Apparently they were not passed along to Sheets.

Oh, and here's another complaint:

Brocton Oglesby, director of emergency management in Hopkins County, said he has seen virtually no contribution from FEMA in the county, where more than half of the 27,000 homes remained without electricity.

"They need to be here — at least a presence, a liaison to work with us, to start feeding information and gearing up for the next stage," Oglesby said. "That's where they're going to be needed the most."

Oglesby's seen FEMA show up after other disasters to assess the damages and write checks. Beshear asked for FEMA to have a role on the front end this time, though, and Oglesby said that hasn't happened

Heck of a job Barry.

And what can FEMA do? Here's a suggestion:

Oglesby said he would like FEMA to bring in outside electricians to help go door to door to make sure the electricity is operational in each house once it comes back on.

"Right now, mom and pop are going to have to fend for themselves and find an electrician," Oglesby said. "This is where we're needing FEMA's presence."

If you got no farther than the headline you would conclude that FEMA is doing a great job. Heck of a job, Barry.

Monday, February 02, 2009

There is a role for government in our current predicament. I even favor a stimulus, albeit via the tax code so as to stimulate the economy, not the government. But the prospect of borrowing money we don’t have to buy what we don’t need, in order to make America more like what I don’t want, makes me grateful that at least America’s conservative party has finally remembered how to say “no.”

Sunday, February 01, 2009

President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus plan, has morphed into an appropriations bill devoid of debate. The process forgoes any pretense of targeting unemployed people and resources.

For instance, the bill reads “Provided further, That not less than $140,000,000 shall be available for climate data modeling.” This raises the question of how many unemployed climate modelers are out there pounding the pavement.

When presented with that question, last Friday, Pat Michaels, former president of the American Association of State Climatologists stated “I don’t know one unemployed modeler.”

Whether or not another $140,000,000 for climate data modeling is a good idea, it is hard to see an immediate, economy-stimulating impact from this item.

What’s the rush? Maybe they need to get all their modeling done before another cool year highlights how bad the models are.

According to the Huffington Post, tax cheats and crooks in the Obama administration are a GOOD THING.

None of these exceptional appointments under the Obama administration are intransigent ideologues such as we've seen in the past. Rather, they have all gone to lengths to divorce themselves from any conflicting interests and to rectify any past, "honest mistake" transgressions. They have humbled themselves and made sacrifices where necessary because they value the opportunity to lead solution-driven agendas that will hopefully reverse the ideology-driven course of the past.

It's even easier than the 1040EZ, the only IRS form that can be filled out with a crayon. With the 1040dem, you just take the form, wad it up, and throw it away. One caveat: you have to fill out a Schedule OOPS if you ever get nominated for a high visibility position.

Is it racist to let white people freeze to death in Kentucky while Obama parties and FEMA doesn't help?

We may want to remind ourselves of media and political coverage of past natural disasters because the media remains besotted with Team Obama, and... by the way it's day 7 of dozens of people freezing to death in the Midwest and where's the Obama government?

Let’s see… what’s the media’s reaction to the catastrophe in Kentucky where more than 45 people have died during a “global warming” ice storm.

I kid you not, it’s a story about the (lousy) sports Hall of Fame in Portsmouth, VA and it’s financial troubles. The only people who go there are the friends and relatives of the high school and college players who are the featured attraction there. An entire museum dedicated to local ball players, and the Virginian Pilot considers that the top story of the day while people are freezing to death in Kentucky.

Moving to Pilot's national and world news, the natural disaster in Kentucky is number 7 on the list of important things going on, just behind Strike by 24,000 refinery workers averted for nowand ahead of New Ill. governor plans Washington lobbying trip .

Headline via the The Sundries Shack, which asks, "Has anyone seen FEMA lately?"

It seems we have people dying by the dozens in the midwest, where they've been freezing to death for a few days. Local officials are calling out the Federal government for its notable lack of response.

But Bill Quick (found via Instapundit) believes that "'Where's FEMA?' is not the appropriate question":

The appropriate question is, "Where is the mainstream media, screaming in one united voice, that the absence of FEMA demonstrates the utter fecklessness and failure of the current President and all his policies?"

Plus his barely concealed racism, of course.

This might be a good time for those who have pledged "to be a servant to my president" to head out there, rather than bitching about the contractors working next door. On the plus side though, to the best of my knowledge, no one on the left has actually been rooting for the snow and ice, unlike previous meteorological disasters.

I guess what with Kentucky being a red state the heartless Barack Obama and FEMA can't be bothered helping the suffering Americans trying to cope with a massive ice storm that has left them powerless.

In some parts of rural Kentucky, they're getting water the old-fashioned way — with pails from a creek. There's not room for one more sleeping bag on the shelter floor. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow.

At least 42 people have died, including 11 in Kentucky, and conditions are worsening in many places days after an ice storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Plains to the East Coast. About a million people were still without electric Friday, and with no hope that the lights will come back on soon, small communities are frantically struggling to help their residents.

When a million people in flyover country are suffering, and 42 people have died, we don’t hear much about it. If this was New York, Washington, Boston, (or if the president had an R after his name) you’d see non-stop reports, and the press would be roundly criticizing FEMA’s absence, and the White House’s disregard. Right?...Heck of a job, Barry. While you’re staying warm over there, why don’t you send some help to those folks so they can get their heat and their lights back on, their water running and their lives back on track?

FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said some agency workers had begun working Friday in Kentucky and more help was on the way. Hudak said FEMA also has shipped 50 to 100 generators to the state to supply electricity to such facilities as hospitals, nursing homes and water treatment plants.

“We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions,” she noted.

What? Is she saying that natural disasters impede reaction time? Who would have thought it? At least the state governments are not holding back help! FEMA began working on Friday? But the storm hit on Tuesday! How can that be?

But still, why isn’t the president down there, hugging people? Why was he schmoozing congress with steak dinners* while people were suffering? Why is this going on for almost a week without the president going in there and fixing everything? It’s been way more than 100 hours! Where is Obama? Why does the government not show us what is really going on? Where are the pictures of stranded people? We want to see the pictures! People have died! Show us the bodies!

Hey, I’ve watched the professionals in the mainstream media - I know these are the questions we’re supposed to be asking. They’ll get to them any day, now…any day.

This proves once again that the mainstream media is selective in its coverage, which is driven by its own agenda. What it wants to cover and hype for good or ill gets covered and hyped ad nauseam. And what it does not want to address, gets lost. This is an inconvenient story, with inconvenient victims, so you won’t see the high drama, the probing questions and harsh criticism we’ve seen before.

The press completely controls the conversation of the country, and the direction of each narrative. At least until the “Fairness Doctrine” puts that control more completely into the government’s hands.

The problem is, when the press ignores a story like this, not only are they betraying a credibility-destroying double standard, they’re also keeping other Americans from learning about the situation and offering help - as Americans always do. Booooo, press. Boooooo!

Are we being a little unfair?

In fairness to President Obama, it is not really the job of the president to personally go in and rescue people after a natural disaster. The province in emergencies is still - as it was with Katrina - local, then state government, then federal intervention with funding and FEMA, etc. But the press and the Democrats didn’t want to hear it with Katrina, where the staggering failures of the local and state governments were ignored so that the Bush-beating could commence. But it seems to me if Bush was crucified for “eating cake” with John McCain and not sending FEMA “fast enough” and not running down to NOLA to get in the way of rescuers for the photo-op, then there is certainly some room to criticize President Obama, who supposedly is having a black-tie dinner tonight with members of the press in the warm, cozy White House while hundreds of thousands have evacuated or are still not even being checked on.

At least 42 people have died in Kentucky from a deep freeze in the region. Yet, Obama turns up the thermostat and has steak dinners with supporters....

To be honest, I really don’t believe Obama is targeting white people. I think the man is just naturally incompetent. However, I don’t think President Bush was targeting blacks in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, either. What I do find appalling is the lack of fair-minded and reasoned coverage from the members of the elite media.

One more point: The media’s complete silence on this subject means that fellow Americans don’t know to send voluntary donations for aid and relief, as Americans are apt to do in such situations.